Does anyone know exactly how badly Verbatim DLs are shortening the life of a Wii instead of using a retail version of a DL game? Approx 9 hours are spent a day playing this game so...would my Wii die pretty soon? Would I be better off picking up the retail version?

I'm not thinking about it at all. I just use every type of DVD+R that I come across and just play.

If my Wii dies soon, I'll start to worry, but until then I've had so much fun

PS: I think it is a bit of a myth that certain brands tend to shorten the laser's life. I think some unit's lasers are just shoddy, just as with the DS's touch screen. I've bought three DS Lites and finally the last one had a decent touch screen.

I've launch wii (almost 1.5 year old? i dunno.) and used only backups and wii sports on it. The laser keeps weird noise, but it still works. :| So it should last for some time, but then again i don't play almost at all with wii.
If i remember right launch wii's had bad lasers to start with. :|

I wonder if anyone has any actual numbers on how badly the laser gets affected by burned media (even if it is 1st class media). I remember playing backups with a PS2 for years and the laser still works well to this day. Is this case irrelevant because the PS2's laser is better than the Wii's?

I wonder if anyone has any actual numbers on how badly the laser gets affected by burned media (even if it is 1st class media). I remember playing backups with a PS2 for years and the laser still works well to this day. Is this case irrelevant because the PS2's laser is better than the Wii's?

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That's impossible(?)! I played with my PS2 for 1,99 years, and the laser just died. Poor... he was just near the 2 years... but died before...

How is it physically possible for the type of media you are using to effect the laser? The laser is either on or off, how can the material it shines on make 1 bit of difference?

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This is exactly what I say whenever someone brings up the subject of laser life. I think the whole thing is a crock of shit honestly. Your laser is as likely to die with retail games as with bootlegs. I've had my Dreamcast for over 7 years and the laser is still going strong despite all the backups I played with it. The same thing goes for my Gamecube. I'm not even worrying about my 360's laser right now. I still think laser death is just plain ole random hardware failure

How is it physically possible for the type of media you are using to effect the laser? The laser is either on or off, how can the material it shines on make 1 bit of difference?

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someone will no doubt try and tell you soon in this thread that...

(voice of dweeb) "When the laser can't read the disc it will self power itself up in an effort to read, this will shorten the life of your laser" sniffle sniffle snort

of course it doesn't and will simply throw up a disc error after just a couple of attempts, lasers just degrade the more you use them, backups tend to fail first as they are not as easy to read as originals.